12 C12
created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Hannah sat in the car and buckled her seat belt. Right after her mom had plugged her phone into the cable in the car, Hannah picked it up. She fired up the web browser and went to go look at the predictions for the day. While she was doing that, the phone rang and it was her father calling. He sometimes would call from the road and it was usually right about now if he called in the morning. More often than not he called in the evening so that he could talk to everyone.
"Hi Daddy!" Hannah said, knowing that the mic built into her mom's Chevy would pick up her voice.
"Hey Pumpkin, where's Mom?" Her dad asked. Right now, he was somewhere in Nebraska with his team.
"I'm right here," Emily said. "I'm navigating traffic in the city."
"Sounds fun," He said. "I was just looking at the outlooks. You guys are under a moderate risk for severe." The page that Hannah was trying to look at finally loaded.
"Wow..." She said softly, looking at the image. The entire midsection of the country was pink, the color assigned to a high risk potential of severe weather. "Are there any MD's right now?"
"Not yet," Her dad said. "It wouldn't surprise me if the first ones go up soon." Hannah tapped on the screen, bringing up a display of active storm chasers and their locations. Her dad was about to cross into Kansas. "We're gonna stop just inside Kansas and get breakfast and do some planning. I just wanted to let you know about the moderate. We might end up down in Oklahoma before it's all said and done. Keep your eyes and ears open."
"Alright. You guys be careful and we'll talk to you tonight." Emily said.
"Bye Daddy." Hannah said. "Get me some pictures. I could use some new wallpaper for the iPad"
"I'll try, Have to get Eric to let go of the camera for a few minutes..." John Peterson chuckled. "Love you guys." There was a click as the phone call disconnected and then the radio came back on, softly. Hannah had flipped back to the radar as they pulled up to the school. As her mom parked the car, she showed the screen to her mom.
"That looks bad..." Emily said, shutting the car off. Hannah handed the phone to her mom and got out, grabbing her backpack. The pair walked into the school and headed toward the nurses office. Hannah only paid a little bit of attention as her mom spoke to Mrs. Remington. The storms her dad's team were heading for already showed large hail. She knew that much from the stuff that her dad had tried to teach her and Lexie. Hannah had taken to what her dad had been teaching like a fish took to water. Lexie couldn't have cared less...
"How many times am I going to see you today, Hannah?" Mrs. Remington asked.
Hannah was shaken out of her thought process. "Huh?"
Mrs Remington and Emily looked at each other and chuckled. "How many times am I going to see you today?"
"Oh," Hannah replied. "Only once before Mom gets here to get me for the appointment, and hopefully that will be right before she gets here."
"Ok," Mrs. Remington chuckled. "Let's see how today goes."
"Thank you," Emily said. "I need to go talk to Mrs. Johnson really quick and let her know what's up." Hannah absent-mindedly followed her mom to the main office, where Mrs. Johnson was just booting her computer up.
"Good Morning," She said, glancing up at Emily. "What can I do for you?"
"I just wanted to let you know that I'll be in about one to pick up Hannah for a doctors appointment." Emily said.
"Ok. I have it noted. We'll see you at one thirty, Dr. Peterson" Mrs. Johnson said.
"Thank you." Emily said, turning to Hannah. "I'll see you at one thirty. I'm going to go try to get some work done, I need to try to get through the data that your father collected last spring."
"Ok." Hannah gave a brief smile. "Keep your eyes open."
"I will," Emily said. "Keep your eyes open too."
"I will." Hannah said. Before anyone else said anything, Hannah headed for the library. She wanted to go look at the models for her self. She had gotten quite good at reading the models, and could sometimes see things in them that others could not.
"Good morning, Mrs. Adamson." Hannah said as she walked past the circulation desk. "I'm just going to go check the models for today." This had been a common occurrence before school let out in June. August was usually somewhat quieter than the late spring and early summer months. As the models loaded, Hannah gasped. Every model that loaded on the page she was looking at showed that the entire midsection of the country was just about maxed out on the CAPE values. Looking at a different map, she realized that this was going to be a very bad day. Her attention would be out the window for most of it. Hannah got up and left the computer logged in, and calmly walked over to the circulation desk. "Mrs. Adamson?" Hannah's soft voice betrayed the emotion that she felt inside.
"What can I do for you, Hannah?" Mrs. Adamson replied, spinning around in her chair.
"Can I call my mom really quick?" This was another common occurrence as Hannah usually had more time to compare model runs than anyone else.
"Yep." Mrs. Adamson said. "You know where the phone is. Is your dad out there somewhere?"
"Yeah. He was just going into Kansas before mom dropped me off," Hannah smiled. "I think he's in the wrong place. I think he needs to be down near Lubbock Texas." Hannah dialed her mom's cell phone.
"Dr. Peterson." Her mom said.
"Mom, did Dad say he we going to be around the Oklahoma-Kansas border?"
"Somewhere around there," Her mom said. "Why do you think he should go somewhere else?" The last time Hannah had a suggestion about where her dad should go, it lead to four probe intercepts...
"Lubbock," Hannah said, walking as closely as she could to the computer that she was using. "Cape is in the 7000's, dew points are already in the 70's down there. The only catch is that nothing is initiating yet... It's still early though."
"Lubbock is in the 7000's?" Emily said. "Holy cow. I'll call your father. When was that model run?"
"Uh..." Hannah said, squinting to read the monitor. "Hang on, I need to get closer to the computer."
"Ok," Emily said. Hannah sat the phone down and went over to the computer. She glanced at the data she needed and went back to the phone.
"It's the 1400 run." Hannah said. It was probably more recent than the model run that her father had looked at. "It looks like Lubbock went that high around the 1200 run... As of the 1400 run, our Cape value is around 2000, but our dew points are in the forties."
"All right," Emily said, the sound of a car door shutting was audible in the background. "I'll call your father and let him know what you said, but first I'm going to look at these model runs my self."
Hannah heard the fifteen minute warning bell ring through the speakers in the ceiling of the library. "I have to go. I'll see you at one."
"Alright," Emily said. "I love you and I will see you at one. Keep your eyes open today... I think it's going to be one of those setups... Bye sweetie."
"Bye Mommy." Hannah said, placing the phone back in the cradle.
"I never figured out where you learned all of that, child." Mrs. Adamson said, shaking her head.
"I pay attention to what my parents are saying..." Hannah said, shrugging. "I'll be back at lunch." The ten minute warning bell rang. She walked back over to the computer and logged out. Outside the window, the sky was clear, the sun bright. Hannah knew that was going to change, but didn't have a clue about how long it was going to take.
"Ok," Mrs. Adamson smiled. "I'll see you then."